


Needs More Love

by Yellowtaffeta



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Constipation, F/M, I think this counts as pre-slash?, M/M, Multi, Sypha is awesome and I can not contain her, Yuletide 2018, a what if for season 3, but feelings are more important, everyone confuses those feelings for feelings about Sypha, everyone has feelings for everyone, hair hair every where, lots happening in the background, no one can finish a sentence, no unrequited Sypha feelings just confusion, there is kissing, who kisses who first becomes a point of contention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 07:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17039849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowtaffeta/pseuds/Yellowtaffeta
Summary: A season 3 what if.  Because you can't leave Alucard alone.  You just can't.





	Needs More Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonster/gifts).



“I always knew you were a piece of shit!”He snarls because it hurts.Seeing the dhampyr stand with Carmella.Alucard is looking somewhere behind him, looking though him and Trevor grits his teeth.They haven’t seen each other for three years and this is what he gets?

“Look at me, traitor.”He growls, the sounds rough as they struggle past the lump in his throat.Golden eyes blink and finally settle on him, piercing like the winter wind. 

“Disappointed?”Alucard asks and his voice is so fucking level Trevor feels his hands shake.He swallows, his lips pulling down, his anger running away into the frozen stones of the castle floor.Around them Carmella’s keep is silent and cold, probably used to this.The despair of thousands drained into its foundations. 

“No.…Yes.”Trevor shakes his head, his bangs falling into his eyes obscuring the gold that catches at the corner of his vision. 

“Not with you.” 

He sighs rubbing a hand across his face.He’s tired and sad and should have known better.Shouldn’t care.

“I hate to interrupt this touching reunion.”Carmella’s croning voice has turned hard and brittle with panic.“But there is a forge master to kill!” 

“You aren’t killing Hector!”Trevor roars surging forward.The morning star flies out, fire exploding as it’s stopped mid-arc with a screech.The chain wraps around a straight silver sword that wasn’t there a moment ago.It hangs in the air perfectly level, pointed at his face. 

“Alucard!”Trevor spits yanking the chain, hoping it will pull free but it doesn’t.The sword never wavers.They are left in a stalemate. 

“Go.”Alucard steps forward giving Carmella his back.Her eyes flash and Trevor feels his heart leap into his throat. 

“Don’t you dare!”He bellows not sure who he’s talking to. 

Both of them. 

Himself. 

He shouldn’t care! 

“Hn!”Carmella’s eyes flash as she bares her fangs at him and flies up the staircase.Trevor feels the knot between his shoulders loosen the second her eyes leave the dhampyr’s back.It returns not a moment later as the tension on the chain in his hands increases and Alucard’s sword begins to drag him forward.Gritting his teeth he makes the tactical decision to release the morning star.It goes sailing from his hands and the sword flicks it away in an elegant arc to clatter to the cobblestones out of sight. 

Trevor grits his teeth, feels the numbness in his fingers as Alucard stares on impassively.A cold spot in the room Sypha had called him.Here in Styria the comparison falls short.The piercing wind whips his golden hair around his face but otherwise fails to move him.He is the absolute zero at the center of the storm, an untouchable figure made of ice. 

The air glints and then the sword is at Alucard’s side.“Lets get this over with.”He says eyes downcast. 

Drawing his own blade to match Trevor squares his shoulders.“Before Sypha gets up here.”He vows. 

“Yes.”Alucard’s voice is soft drifting on the wind as he charges and Trevor is lifting his sword to block before he has time to feel indignant that even now the dhampyr is agreeing with him. 

“She trusted you!”He grits out, their blades juddering across one another, screeching in the bitter wind.They make the noise he wants to make, the noise he wishes Alucard would make. 

“Yes.”The dhampyr says again and it is infuriating.Trevor doesn’t think he would hear him if they weren’t so close. 

His chest is heaving as he tries to hold Alucard off while the dhampyr isn’t even breathing hard.He’s forced to give ground and role away flashing back up to the side in a flank.The sword intercepts his swing and Alucard still has his back to him, his golden eyes glinting as he turns just enough to keep Trevor in sight.More attention than he’d given Carmela Trevor notes with satisfaction. 

“You are very lucky.”The blonde smiles.Just a bit, just a little sad but the shock is enough to have Trevor stumbling when Alucard places his hand back on the sword and twists.His own wrenches in his grip and it takes every ounce of determination he has to keep his hold.He’s Trevor fucking Belmont and he has never lost a fight (accept maybe a few with Sypha) and here he is getting his ass handed to him because Alucard has FEELINGS?!Since when has he cared?! 

_A pair of wide golden eyes stare at him in horror through a shower of blood as dracula’s head falls from his body, thin lips parting in a wry smile not wide enough for anyone to see the fangs, a soft voice says he’s not ready but he’s going anyway._

“Are you jealous?!”The words are out before he can think and Trevor can only stop and stare.It almost costs him his head and he is forced to duck as the sword and Alucard take advantage of his distraction to keep pressing him.Alucard is a whirl of black and gold and for a moment it is all Trevor can do to keep all of his extremities atached.Their swords clash and sparks fly lighting up the night around them.

“Of Sypha?Yes, sometimes.”Alucard speaks as they push against each other.And Trevor falters again.At this rate Alucard will kill him with words instead of swords.And wouldn’t that be a way to go.The last Belmont, talked to death.He can imagine the tombstone Sypha will carve him now. 

He slips on a patch of dark ice and he looses his footing.Hitting the ground with a grunt he rolls to his feet and settles into a crouch, sword leveled up at the dhampyr's heart.Alucard doesn’t follow, standing tall and looking down on him from his full height his words finally click in Trevor’s mind. 

“What?”He blinks, confused because he’d never seen Alucard look at the speaker like that.Like it mattered. 

“You— What?I didn’t think she was your type…”He’s babbling and it’s the middle of a fight.Definitely not the first time, but the strange thing is he’s pretty sure he’s sober right now so that is new. 

Something else new is the hunch of Alucard’s shoulders, the shudder that works through his body as his hair swings in front of his face.He’s laughing Trevor realizes affronted.Well it isn’t the first time he’s been laughed at in the middle of a fight either but it still feels like a kick to the balls regardless.The sword which had been hounding his every move now hovers perpendicular to the ground as if waiting for its master to pull it from the cobblestones.But Alucard is too busy laughing into his hands, his hair a tangled mess between his fingers. 

Ever the pragmatist Trevor doesn’t wait, darting off to where the morning star fell and quickly readying the chain. 

Returning from his fit of insanity Alucard smiles at him.His cheeks are flushed and his hair is pushed behind his ears.Trevor can see the fangs.The wind is harsh and his cheeks burn. 

“You are so unobservant.”Alucard chuckles his eyes crinkling up at the corners where they are wet.“I know you are older than me.How can you be so naive?”He asks the happy creases around his eyes fading as the wind grabs at them. 

Trevor knows his face is making some stupid expression right now.He can feel it.One eye is twitching, the one with the scar, it always does.He doesn’t get it, maybe he’s never gotten it.He barely understands Sypha when she tells him she wants to have more adventures, with him.When she looks up at him with big open eyes and asks ‘will you come with me?’.It’s been three years and he’s only just now beginning to understand that it’s ok. 

What is Alucard saying? 

After all the progress he’s made, suddenly, Trevor feels stupid again.That man that reeks of blood and piss and beer creeping back to the surface and it hurts.Makes his words truly childish. 

“I lost everything when I was thirteen!I spent my time, drunk, unresponsive and passed out on the bar room floor!I didn’t learn whatever fancy game you’re trying to pull.And I’m not going to play!”The morning star goes zinging from his fingers.As he bellows he twists the chain around his arm, uses the weight of his body to redirect the angle in anticipation of the sword waiting to block. 

Only, it never moves.Alucard never moves and the wind lances through Trevor’s chest as the charged tip sails unchecked towards the blonde’s torso.The cold threads down his fingers and they flinch. _He remembers Dracula, falling to his knees, eye’s wide from the pain_. 

The morning star glances off Alucard’s shoulder in an explosion of fire and smoke and the dhampyr goes spinning away.His jaw cracks against the stones of the courtyard and then he lies still sprawled on the ground, golden hair a tattered halo around his face.Trevor curses.He ment to do that.It was on purpose he tells himself as he dashes after his opponent. 

“Alucard!” 

He yells throwing himself down next to the other’s prone body.The morning star goes clattering away from his grip again, this time completely without thought. 

His hands are on the dhampyr’s shoulder’s laying him flat, pushing the hair out of his face.It runs through his palms like liquid gold, supple and so soft.It snags on the rough skin of his callouses, a reminder of what he’s doing.What he’s holding. 

Alucard’s eyes blink up at him, the same shimmering color as his hair.They are slitted and a little unfocused.His back arches, a light breath escaping him and Trevor watches as the flesh on his shoulder folds back over the exposed bone.Within moments it’s closed, smoothing back out into creamy unblemished skin, the only reminder of the injury the ragged hole in his jacket.He gasps again, the tension snapping, leaving his shoulders to slump back to the cold stone. 

He breathes, the rise and fall of his chest coming back under control and in a moment Trevor knows everything will return to normal.Like nothing had ever happened.As if in response to the lack of injury on Alucard’s chest fire blooms in Trevor’s.It’s anger. 

“What were you thinking?”His voice is shaking, his whole body thick with coiled tension and his hands fist in whatever piece of the dhampyr they can find.“Why didn’t you move?!”He snarls dragging Alucard up. 

Alucard watches him impassively, one of Trevor’s hands in his collar the other still tangled in his hair, ripping at the golden strands.When he speaks it’s still softly. 

“I lost everything when I was seventeen.I’m sorry, it’s not ment to be a game.”

And what is Trevor supposed to do with that?!There are like fifty problems with that sentence ranging from the apology to the fact that it hadn’t addressed the original question, not even a little bit!But what really sticks in Trevor’s mind is the age. 

“You mean you were… seventeen when…?”He mutters, dumfounded. 

Alucard looks uncomfortable now (finally), shifting his gaze to the side unable to hold Trevor’s eyes. 

“I told you I grew quickly.”He huffs, lips pressed into a thin line. 

Gathering his legs back underneath himself he shoves Trevor away, making to return to his feet.The only problem is that Trevor’s hand is still tangled in his hair and though the vampire hunter’s grip is loose from surprise it still clings to his fingers.Trevor grunts as he lands on his butt but a moment later Alucard follows him with a hiss.He falls forward onto Trevor who lets out a yelp of his own, his free hand going down to push at the dhampyr’s knee. 

“Move!Move.”He holds his breath until Alucard’s leg is moved before letting it all out in a rush. 

“Thought you said groin attacks where uncivilized.”He wheezes face screwed up in too much pain to catch the pause that skitters through the dhampyr's body.He does catch when Alucard bares his fangs, rearing back away from him.Catches him by the ragged hole in the shoulder of his jacket. 

“Still haven’t explained this.”He chokes out, tapping at the exposed skin with his fingers.His hands are so numb he can’t tell what temperature Alucard is.Dhampyrs are different form full vampires, maybe the shiver he feels under his fingers IS from the cold. 

“What do you want me to say Belmont?”Alucard sighs, all the fight, all the indignation draining out of him.His eyes close and above in the night sky the light of the stars makes him look so young. 

“I saw what it did to my father.I was… curious.”He admits looking up at the moon.“I wanted to know if it would be enough…” 

Trevor doesn’t think he really ment to say that last part out loud.He can’t have because for all it makes him angry to admit Alucard is incredibly, infuriatingly, brilliantly smart.He has to know just how mad that sentence makes him. 

Without thinking he hauls himself up with the hand in the dhampyr’s coat and socks him one right in the teeth with the other.There’s hair in his fist and some of the golden strands break as he punches.It’s small consolation in the face of Alucard’s indifference. 

“You wanted me to?!”He’s so angry he punches him in the face again, little good that it does. 

“You wanted—!” 

His knuckles throb and Alucard’s face is unscathed.He’s turned away, hiding behindthe curtain of his hair.Trevor doesn’t understand, no amount of piss or beer or bar room floors is going to fix that.There’s a knot in his throat, broken strands of hair between his fingers and really the only thing left he can think to do is ask, “Why?” 

From where he hides Alucard sucks in a shuddering breath.When he lets it out it’s like the release of an arrow, it flies forward, straight and true. 

“Because I’m twenty years old and they are all already dead.”It hisses back in, harsh and painful.“Do you know how long I’m going to… going to live?They’re all dead and I can’t…”

And this Trevor can understand.Because he had to learn. 

His fingers unclench, gentling their hold.One hand smooths down the ruined collar of Alucard’s coat the other hovers awkwardly in the air next to his face.He wishes the son of Dracula would look at him for this.Wants to brush the hair away and tip his chin up to meet him.But he can’t.He’s found something he knows but it’s only so much. 

“They are.”He agrees his voice hard because there is no getting around it.The only remedy is to hear it and to say it until you KNOW it.“They are dead.But there will be more.” 

Alucard is watching him.His eyes glintingfrom where he hides.Trevor sits back feeling exposed under the scrutiny.Heat climbing up his neck despite the cold.Now it’s his turn to shy awayfrom the other’s gaze. 

“If even I can find more people that like me you’ll be fine.”He grumbles, gesturing with his arms.It’s a nervous habit he’s never been able to break. 

“You’ve already got Sypha.And…”And he’s on a role now.There’s no stopping this. 

“And me.”He spits out fast as he can.Drops it between them like the hot coal that it is. 

“So don’t tell me there’s no one who cares.”He finishes face tight and hot. 

Alucard sighs, running his hands through his hair he sweeps it up and out of his face.He’s still looking away, his long features in sharp profile. 

“You are going to die.”He says, and Trevor would be affronted accept that it’s true. 

“I …will.But there will be others.More.”He admits finally lowering his hands.So of course it’s now that Alucard looks at him.Golden eye’s glinting under the starlit sky. 

“Not like you.”He breathes and the air around him ignites.It’s like sitting next to a raging fire.Trevor’s no longer cold because Alucard is right there and he’s burning.

_______________________________________________

 

“Trevor!”Sypha’s voice calls out and it’s like a cool breeze, reminding him of the winter winds that blow around them.He looks away from Alucard.He’s not sure how long he’s been staring.Minutes.The whole night.Since the day they met. 

Sypha is picking her way across the courtyard and his eyes quickly scan her for injuries.She’s fine, not even so much as a scuff on her robe.He lets out a breath, relief sweeping through him now that she’s here.She’s here, she’s ok …He shouldn’t have left her.Doesn’t ever want to leave her again. 

Beside him Alucard shifts preparing to rise.Before he can retreat Trevor grabs his wrist.He’s done with leaving.With being left.He’s not going to leave either of them again. 

Sypha reaches them, her breath puffing into the air in vapor clouds.She reaches for them too.One hand on Alucard’s shoulder, one hand searching out his own. 

“Are you ok?”She asks, breath slowing now that she’s here.Now that she’s found them.Wide blue eyes size them up before narrowing. 

“You are… fighting right?”Her voice is tart, her eyes catching on the golden strands that twine around Trevor’s fingers.She’s got the hand with the hair in it he realizes sheepishly.The speaker’s eyes flick to Alucard, to his shoulder and she huffs, indigent. 

“You two are being ridiculous!Just kiss already!” 

Trevor gapes.Beside him he can feel Alucard go dangerously still but as much as he would like to pay attention to the dhampyr he can’t.Sypha’s words are echoing in his head and he doesn’t understand how she got to that conclusion. 

Especially when… 

“I haven’t even kissed you yet…”He chokes out unthinking. 

Alucard does pull away from them now.Rising to his feet and shaking out his coat.From the corner of his eye Trevor watches him call his sword into its sheath. 

“It’s been 3 years and you haven’t kissed him yet?”He says like it’s not Trevor’s job to do the kissing.Like there was never any question that Sypha was in charge of that development in their relationship. 

“Oh fuck you!”He shouts back but Alucard is studiously ignoring him.Sypha isn’t helping either.There’s a blush on her cheeks and a dangerous look in her eyes as she scowls at Alucard. 

“Well I was—!We were—!It was a very busy time!”She stutters letting go of Trevor’s hand in favor of hurrying after the dhampyr’s retreating figure. 

He’s been abandoned Trevor realizes with growing irritation.Neither of his friends showing any faith in his ability to have feelings.And maybe they’re right.His feelings are a stunted mangled mess.But he still has them and despite what they might think he does know what to do with them.Sometimes.

“Hey!”He yells after them, pushing himself to his feet as he vows to prove it to them both. 

Just as he regains his full height the entire fortress rocks.Twin jets of red and blue light surging up into the night sky and all three of them brace as the ground tries to buck them off.In a blink Alucard is back by his side, Sypha tucked behind him, shielded from the falling castle walls closer to the entrance.By the time the shaking stops the moon has turned red. 

Cautiously the three stand up, their gazes fixed on the top of the keep where the lights came from.Alucard’s face is impassive when Trevor glances at him.Now that he knows the dhampyr was possibly banking on being dead before his father’s return he watches carefully.But the son of Dracula shows nothing on his face.After a moment the corners of his mouth turn up. 

“Well look at that.”He drawls his eyes cutting to Sypha, sly and challenging.“It looks like it will be a very BUSY time for us.”He’s not smiling but there is something in his tone, something biting and sarcastic that Trevor has missed.Something that is so good to finally hear again. 

Sypha doesn’t seem to think so, scowling at the dhampyr and poking him in the shoulder. 

“You aren’t getting out of this Alucard!”She warns. 

Trevor freezes.They’re talking about… They’re still talking about kissing him.His brain stutters leaving his feet frozen to the cobblestones even as the other two begin making their way to the half collapsed entrance. 

Alucard pauses, looking back over his shoulder.“Try not to drop your whip again.”He drawls, voice dry as the dessert.But there is a flash of white as he smiles, his fangs glinting in the light of the moon. 

Gritting his teeth Trevor scowls but unfortunately he has no time to retort.He really does need to find the morning star.A quick search through the rubble later and it is in his hands, the chain between his fingers a comforting weight to balance out all the other emotions swirling within him. 

They will kill Dracula (again) and then… then they will talk.Ugh, he can’t wait. 

Something gold glints on his hand.A moment later a few strands of Alucard’s hair are tucked into the grip of his whip.

_______________________________________________

 

The weather is still terrible.Turns out reducing Styria castle to a pile of rubble has no effect on the wind chill.Trevor kicks a rock as he makes his way through the carnage to Alucard’s side.It goes tumbling down into the valley below and inwardly he curses the dhampyr’s need to place himself at the edge of the chasm. 

Alucard is looking out across the mountains, his hair and coattails dancing in the breeze.He makes no move when Trevor halts next to him and there is silence for a long moment as the wind sings through the hills.The land is devoid of movement, no human’s no animals.Lots of snow and a few stunted pine trees but otherwise Styria is still.Last night it was swathed in red but now the snow shines pristine and white.Glancing at Alucard Trevor wonders if they are looking at the same scene. 

Scratching at his chin with a finger he decides the wait has been long enough. 

“Hector is going to be fine,”He spreads his hands in a helpless gesture,“scared for life, but fine.” 

The corner of Alucard’s mouth twitches but he continues staring out across the snow. 

“That is… good, I guess.”He agrees.Which is true.With everything that’s happened, with everything the he has seen these last three years they are lucky the forge master is mentally present at all.Sypha is with him now.Trevor has faith that the speaker won’t let the man wallow in his depression.She’s very good at that Trevor smiles wryly. 

His humor wanes quickly as he delivers the rest of his news. 

“Isaac is dead…”He had called the soul of Dracula into his own body.There hadn’t been a way…Alucard had seen to it personally.But still, Trevor had hoped.For Hector, for Isaac himself. 

And for Alucard. 

“I see.”The son of Dracula says and Trevor is sure he does.Silence falls like snow around them, Alucard’s eyes still fixed on something only he can see out among the hills. 

_______________________________________________

 

“Ugh gross!You smell like wet dog!”Sypha complains shoving her hand into his face to keep him away from her. 

They are on the road traveling back from the north.Their pace much slower now that Carmella and Dracula no longer threaten the countryside.Also because their party is much bigger this time.Along with Alucard they are joined by Hector.The forge master had nowhere to go and no plans other than ‘away from people’.The speaker had quickly put a stop to that, packing him onto the wagon they had procured and declaring that they would take him back to the Belmont/Tepes libraries with them.Hector hadn’t complained and spends most of his time asleep in the wagon. 

Which is where he is now and why Trevor isn’t worried about being interrupted as he takes care of a little… business. 

After pushing him out of her personal space Sypha turns away intent on heading back to the campfire.Trevor is not having it.His arms sweep out again wrapping around the speakers waist.Her robe hides it well but underneath she is willowy and trim, his arms easily encompassing her and pulling her back into his chest. 

“Sypha, neither of us has had a bath in weeks I smell exactly the same as you.”He chides as she begins to struggle. 

“No you do not!”She disagrees hotly, squirming in his hold. 

He would be worried, would never dare to touch her like this, accept… he can see the smile behind the glare she is leveling at him, the suspicious twitch to her lips and the sparkle in her eye.Knows that if the speaker mage really wanted him to let her go there is NO WAY he could hold her.She has the highest vampire kill count of the lot of them, Alucard included.She could have him in pieces. 

But she doesn’t so he holds on. 

“I just thought—Oof!”her elbow connects with his diaphragm and he sucks in a sharp breath. 

“Just thought that if you weren’t busy there’s something we need to do.”He manages to get out around her squirming extremities. 

She goes still, a hot blush burning across her cheeks and up over her ears.Taking advantage of her confusion he gets her turned halfway in his embrace before her struggles begin anew and she braces her palms against his chest.Trevor is glad he is still wearing his armor.The glare she is giving him looks like it could melt the entire province of all snow.Idly he wonders if the heat radiating off her face would enhance her fire magic. 

He’s still staring at her, taking in the blue of her eyes, the furrow of her brows and the soft plush pout of her lips… when the snap of a stick and the soft rustle of fabric startles him.Both of them turn at the sound.The moment breaking. 

Alucard is leaning against the side of the wagon, the evening sun shimmering in his eyes as he watches them. 

“Oh don’t let me interrupt.”He waves a hand.“You look very BUSY.”He enunciates the last word a dark teasing note creeping into his voice as he continues to stare intently. 

Trevor stares back his heart beating faster in his chest as he thinks about it.Like Sypha if Alucard didn’t want this to be happening, didn’t want them to know he was there, they wouldn’t.But he does… and Trevor… likes it. 

Sypha shifts in his arms, still warm still pliant and Trevor grins.Looking away from the dark golden eyes.Content that he KNOWS they will be watching he leers down at her.Immediately the speaker is back on guard, one hand coming up to block his face again.He grabs her wrist, ducking down to capture her lips and the sharp squawk of surprise she lets out. 

It isn’t graceful, it isn’t even that good really, too wet, too hard, too many teeth.He’d kissed a few barmaids and bartenders in his time, always drunk half remembered moments done less because he wanted to and more because he was pretty sure it was what he was supposed to want.None of it had ever been like this. 

Because this is happy.Sypha has struck him with her magic, he’s sure because there is a sun inside of him that only grows brighter under the golden gaze he knows is watching.Earlier Sypha had called him a dog, he makes sure to slobber all over her. 

Her struggles resume, taking them down to the ground where they tussle in the snow.Alucard is laughing, holding the side of the wagon for support when Sypha finally gets her feet into Trevor’s chest and manages to shove him away from her.He pants, leaning back on his elbows and allowing the speaker to crawl away from him at top speed. 

“That,”Sypha hisses when she has put the campfire between them.“Was not a kiss!” 

Trevor is positively giddy. 

“What?I used all the parts I was supposed too!”He giggles looking from speaker to dhampyr and finding no support. 

Alucard is still grinning, one hand clutching the wagon, the other needing at his forehead.His fangs are out and brilliantly white. 

“No.”He rasps, glancing at Trevor with the light of the fire dancing in his eyes.“That was not a kiss.” 

And then he pushes off the wagon and stalks towards the vampire hunter.Trevor freezes, the muscles in his face going slack.Because as Alucard kneels next to him and pulls him up, one hand in his cloak, the other on the side of his neck, he still can’t believe this is happening.Can’t believe he gets to have this.Both of them.That they want him.Him with his bar floors and pessimism and all of the fancy smart important things that he doesn’t know. 

Alucard’s kiss is soft, a brush of lips that aren’t cold or hot but sweet and quiet.Alucard kisses just like he talks Trevor things through the golden haze in his head and when he pulls away the vampire hunter leans in to follow.Because though Sypha may be the sun, Alucard isn’t cold. 

She’s joined them he realizes a while later.Left her fortified position behind the fire and come to sit as the third point to their triangle.Reaching for the dhampyr’s shoulder she leans up and places a gentle kiss on his cheek.Winding an arm around her slim figure Alucard returns the gesture, pressing his smile into the curls at her temple.Sypha giggles and Trevor feels his heart lurch. 

He was alone before.

_______________________________________________

 

It takes several months of travel to reach the ruins of the Belmont estate.The looming shadow of the castle is the first thing they see.It stands stark on the horizon, taller than any tree it’s towers stabbing up into the sky at angles no manmade structure could hope to replicate.Alucard and Hector both look at it when they think no one is watching and Trevor feels the first strings of unease creep back into his heart. 

These months of travel have been good.The best if he’s being honest with himself.Alucard and Sypha have both thoroughly educated him on how to kiss.Though how they know more than him he’s not sure he wants to know.Alucard is only twenty years old for god’s sake!And though that may be plenty of time for some Trevor knows he spent the last five of them, injured, asleep or… alone.And there’in lies the trouble.The unspoken demon in the room. 

A hunched figure waves to them from the steps as they role up to the silent structure and Sypha jumps out with a happy cry.She leaves them to unhitch the horses as she runs to hug her grandfather, greeting the rest of the robed figures that begin to emerge.They hang back to give her space. 

“When did they get here?”Alucard asks, one knee bent as he leans against the wagon. 

“They’re how we knew you were gone.”Trevor smiles, his arms crossed as he watches Sypha hold the old man’s hands.She’s talking animatedly, her voice carrying to them where they stand when she reaches some of the more dramatic parts. 

“The speakers have been here for a while.”Trevor finishes fondly. 

“I see.”Alucard says and though he has gotten much better at reading him over the months of travel Trevor still pauses, turning to gauge the dhampyr’s reaction.Nothing shows on Alucard’s face but there is a weight to his words that catches Trevor’s attention.He doesn’t know what it is and he’s still contemplating how to ask when Sypha runs back and pulls them both forward to greet her family. 

Being back is nice.For a few days.They get Hector settled in and the forge master takes to the speakers like he was born for it. 

Alucard on the other hand…Trevor can see him slowly withdrawing.There are no kisses, no flashes of fang when he smiles, no fingers tangled with his when they lay their blankets around the fire to sleep.Trevor isn’t actually sure where the dhampyr is sleeping.Not in his old room surely. 

A few weeks after their return Sypha gives him a look. 

“What are you waiting for?”She hisses and Trevor scowls. 

“Why is this my job?”He grumbles.“You’ve said it before, I’m terrible at comforting people.” 

The speaker’s eyes sparkle and she grins.“Yes but as I have also said, you are better than you where when I met you.” 

He leans down to kiss her.Because she’s smiling and because he can.And then she is shoving him towards the door, sending him on his way a little piece of the sun glowing inside his chest. 

He finds Alucard in the labs.He hasn’t spent much time down here since there return but he’s sure the dhampyr has.The son of Dracula is hunched over a complex looking machine, his hair pulled away from his face in a neat tie.One eye is pressed to a tube jutting from the top of the device and the sight makes Trevor stop and ponder for a moment. 

He knows that Dracula was a man of the true science, incredibly intelligent with hundreds of years of irreplaceable knowledge at his finger tips.He wonders how much of that Alucard could learn in fifteen years…The machinery below Greshit had been vast and complex.A testament to Alucard’s abilities especially since it must have been built quickly while he was severely injured. 

He tries to imagine the dhampyr’s father teaching him.Alucard, nothing more than a beautiful golden haired boy applying himself to his lessons with the same conviction and drive with which he does all things.Tries to imagine Dracula as a loving father to his son speaking firmly and laughing when his boy gets it right.He can’t picture it.Can’t reconcile the image of the vampire who shoved Alucard’s face into a flaming hearth with that of a father.Knows he should stop trying because the images that flash behind his eyes when he does are of his own family which he will not compare. 

“Did you need something?”Alucard’s cool voice interrupts his thoughts, drawing Trevor’s attention back to where he still stands hunched over the delicate instrument.His long fingers adjust a nob on the side and he gazes through the lens at the top not looking up once. 

There was a time when Trevor, too intimidated by his own ignorance to ask, would have walk away and found one of the few things he did understand like beer or a weapon to ease the burn of inadequacy he felt from looking at it. 

Not any more. 

“What are you doing?”He asks sliding closer along the table, absently picking up one of the small glass panes that are arrayed out next to the machine. 

“I am looking at a magnified cross section of a night creature that Hector has provided for me.”Alucard says finally straightening from his work and turning his attention to Trevor.Sharp golden eyes settle on him like a weight, like an electric charge that thrums through his heart making it beat faster. 

“This is a sample of skin.”He gestures to the glass pane Trevor can now make out slotted into the instrument.“The slide you are holding is muscle tissue.” 

Gingerly Trevor sets the glass back down on the table top. 

“Soooo,”He draws the word out to fill the awkward silence that has fallen.“Guess you’re glad to be back with all your fiddly toys.”He manages to get out cringing at how awkward he sounds and how his hands make lines through the air refusing to stay still at his sides. 

“Yes.”The dhampyr responds in that same clipped tone Trevor heard on a cold night in Styria.“Dracula’s castle is home too many such things.”He says turning away from the table.Shadowed golden eyes track something unseen down the hall.The hair prickles on Trevor’s arm.Alucard’s manner is beginning to alarm him. 

“Why didn’t you stay?”He asks straight out because even if he is a better man he still has no tact.He is a sharp blade designed to cut through the meat to the heart of the problem. 

“Why didn’t you stay?”Alucard murmurs still following what Trevor can’t see with his eyes. 

On the outside the question seems odd but Trevor knows the dhampyr isn’t asking about three years ago.Is set to remind him that despite the hair and the teeth and the father, the place that birthed them is the same. 

“The only thing in those ruins are ghosts.”Trevor says.He’s made peace with that. 

Beside him Alucard is watching a tall chair set at the end of the table, his eyes dark and cold. 

“And I will have eternity with them.”He whispers finally bringing a hand up to rub at his eyes.Trevor stands to the side as Alucard gently removes the slide and washes it clean.Once the table is whipped down, the delicate scientific instrument placed back in its cupboard he catches his wrist. 

“Come on.”Tugging Alucard behind him he walks out of the room.His passenger is silent until they reach the main foyer of the castle. 

“What—?” 

“Sypha’s people will look after the libraries for a while.”Trevor says talking over whatever protests Alucard is about to voice.Towing them out the castle gates and into the clearing created by the structures crash landing their feet splash through puddles as spring melts the woods around them. 

“I see.”Alucard says though it’s clear that he does not. 

“And now that Hector is with them they will be safe.”Trevor continues.They’ve almost reached the treelike. 

“Alright.”Alucard still sounds faintly bemused.They cross from sun into shade and Trevor turns, releasing the dhampyre from his grasp.He throws his arms wide. 

“So come on!You said it yourself.We only have so much time.So let’s go.”Smiling he tries to motion Alucard farther along the path that is developing between the castle and the Belmont ruins but the dhampyr doesn’t budge. 

Alucard tilts his head regarding Trevor with incredulity.“You want me to… Come with you?” 

Gold shimmers in his eyes, the light under the trees constantly changing.A waterfall of blonde hair, still caught in the tie at the nap of his neck flows down his shoulder. 

“Yes.”Trevor smiles, happy to use the son of Dracula’s word against him. 

“Now?”The ghost of a wrinkle appears at his brow and Trevor laughs grabbing for his wrists again. 

“Yes!”He tugs the man a few more steps into the trees but Alucard doesn’t seem to know when to give up.

“That is nice of you Belmont but—“

“No.”Trevor cuts him off again, serious this time.All trace of laughter exchanged for an earnesty that has been hard won.Because he IS older and there ARE some things he can teach this incredibly smart man. 

“All this time you’ve chosen things because you have to.It’s time to choose something because you want to.”He mutters loosing his feeling ridiculous and looking away at the last moment.He hopes he’s right.Hopes Alucard does want this. 

The dhampyr’s chuckle makes his ears burn.“For someone who claims to be an adult what you are suggesting sounds incredibly childish.” 

Alucard teases but… 

“It’s not.”Trevor frowns looking back up.The blond’s face is soft and sad, the furrow between his brows growing more pronounced as he comes to realize that Trevor is not making a joke of this. 

The skin at his wrists where Trevor holds him is cool but not cold.They are not Sypha’s slim wrists that he can encompass with thumb and forefinger, more solid, wider and firm.But they still hold the same delicate grace as the rest of him, each bone and tendon clearly defined and formed with a purpose.Trevor can feel them under his fingers as he slides them up to twine with Alucard’s own.

““Being happy isn’t about age or duty.It’s not even about choice really.”He murmurs rubbing his thumb up and over the dip in the dhampyr’s wrist.Taking a deep breath he looks him in the eye.“Listen, sometimes things are terrible and there’s no way out… so when there is…”He gives there hands a squeeze.“You have to take it.” 

Alucard blinks, the crease still marring his brow but he doesn’t push Trevor away, doesn’t let go of his hands.Slowly, telegraphing his every move Trevor leans in.They are of a height and it is easy to kiss him. 

The cool sweetness of Alucard’s mouth never fails to send a thrill down his spine.When it reaches his ribcage it splinters, sparks jumping along each rib individualy until they reach his chest, his heart.He has learned a lot over the past few months and he puts it to use, easing Alucard into it with soft but insistent pressure.The dhampyr opens his mouth around what feels like his name and Trevor swallows the silent sound, Pulls him closer with their hands and licks into his mouth with his tongue.The fangs are there and he brushes against them feeling the dangerous point.He’s very careful not to prick himself. 

A shiver runs through Alucard’s body, Trevor feels it in his hands and in his breath where it fans against his face, and in his chest.The tension bleeds out of him and he leans into Trevor’s hold with a sigh.It feels like years go by in one moment, in one kiss.The soft light of the season’s swirling around them before settling on something warmer than it had been before.When Trevor pulls away he feels older, confident …and happy. 

“So will you come with me?Will you come with us?”He beams, unable to contain it and Alucard smiles back. 

“Yes”He says his mouth flushed red and gold flashing in his eyes.“But we can’t just leave.We have no plan.No supplies.You aren’t even wearing a coat.”He teases. 

‘Neither are you’ Trevor want’s to retort but doesn’t, too giddy at his success, at what lies ahead.Being excited for the future is something else he is getting used to. 

He releases Alucard’s hands giving him a push down the trail.“Head to the Belmont ruins.I’ll meet you there.”He grins jogging back towards the castle. 

Traveling with no supplies and no plan is nothing new to him but he makes an effort.Haphazardly filling two packs with the bare essentials for survival.They are both strong, capable men whatever he forgets they can make do without.Or trade for at the next town…

The last thing to find is Alucard’s coat.It is being ridiculously illusive.Frowning at the bottom of yet another empty trunk he is about to give up and bring one of his extra cloaks for the dhampyr when a sharp knock sounds from the doorway.Turning he catches Sypha watching him fondly.In her hands a heavy black coat with gold buckles.She holds it out to him with a smile and he takes it feeling the weight of the garment, soft and worn between his fingers.Instinctivly he looks to the shoulder where the hole had been for many months.It’s patched now.Another fabric sewn into the gap with tiny precise stitches.His brow furrows and he looks from the garment to the speaker. 

“Did you…” 

Sypha blinks then frowns.“No.My grandfather did.”She sounds indignant but there is the faintest dusting of pink across the bridge of her nose.Grinning Trevor sweeps her into his arms spinning her around in a full circle to her delight.When he sets her down she pats his cheek the light dancing in her eyes. 

“My trained pet bear.”She giggles and Trevor grins. 

“Thank you.”The words are rusty but come easier each time.He thought it might be hard to leave her but it’s not because he knows it isn’t good bye. 

_______________________________________________

 

“Sypha’s going to meet us in Braila.She wants to stay a bit longer with the speakers.”He says tossing a pack at Alucard’s head.The dhampyr had been in his customary pose leaning against a crumbling wall, gaze somewhere in the middle distance.He catches the bag one handed and graciously accepts his coat. 

“Does she.”He says, arching one delicate brow his red kissed lips smiling around the words. 

They banter as they walk and there is no trace of awkwardness. 

“What about horses?A wagon?” 

“We don’t need a wagon.I’ve traveled plenty without one.You could always change into that… wolf thing.I could ri—“ 

“No.” 

“No?” 

“Absolutely not.If you must ride something… we will talk.” 

“What?!I don’t—” 

“That’s a tree Belmont, walk straight please.” 

Well maybe a little.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide! Thank you for your wonderful prompts! I loved writing for Castlevania especially since I'm sure it won't be small enough to qualify by next year (I mean, it better not be!) Season 2 was so good right?! I loved all the politicking and infighting with Dracula's army. I'm going to miss those weirdos especially Godbrand... Can't believe I'm saying that... Lets hope things look better for Hector in season 3 and that someone goes and gets Alucard because leaving him alone in that big empty castle is just ridiculous! Once again, best wishes for the holidays and a happy new year. Thank you so much and I hope you like it :)


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